Advances in interactive voice response systems and private branch exchanges have allowed for the development of systems which can interact with calling parties to solicit information in an automated fashion. In addition, modern database technology can allow for the characterization of a population in extremely fine detail. Finally, with the development of computer telephony interfaces, private branch exchanges and other private switching systems can be accessed and, in part, controlled by efficient and inexpensive personal computers and minicomputers. While all of these building blocks are in place, little work has been done to integrate these facilities to allow the use of the vast amounts of information stored in a company's database to be used to control the access to the company's staff through the telecommunications interfaces.
Accordingly, need has arisen for a system which responds in an intelligent fashion to information provided by a telecommunications system or other data provided by other systems to perform tasks in an automated fashion responsive to the information received.